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2 de Mayo, 2007
For the Good of All: US-Iraq Must Fail
Categorized under Corazón , Iraq the Casbah , Parenting | Tags: Dare Not Speak Its Name, Format, Hope, Iraq
AND THE IRAQ OCCUPATION BE DRIVEN OUT and the attempt to sow seeds from the American invasion collapse—in an incontestable and dramatic fashion. As it is doing.
While every statement from the Right or the Left presupposes the idea that Of Course I Hope it Succeeds, I must disagree with that a priori element of our conversation. Iraq—the invasion and occupation thereof—must not succeed. Nor will the inexorable forces of Nature allow it. She may (as she loves to do) bring new shapes from the old. But it will not be in a way that validates the intent and actions of the Decider. There will be no shimmery Worm Kingdom crawling off of the American War Map. The worm will, instead, split wide open, and a winged change shall come forth. It may fly in the face of what the USA planned. But as my nana always said Man Plans, God Laughs.
Often I think of things as seen through the eyes of a child. In part, this is because I will often consider in what way I must convey something to an actual child. And another part of this is a fragment of consciousness that has been with me since my childhood...it just never left. A very simple lens. It was never taught out of me, or it never left. I never asked it to. Or it was encouraged to remain.
With our Preemptive War that Bush-Cheney-Rummy hoped would move quickly and devastatingly—Adolf Hitler's tool, if you recall—what are we teaching the new humans to come into this Earth? Nevermind the gloss and hype and "spin" and other obfuscation that language facilitates, and that pure of heart humans (and non-speaking animals) cannot hear. What do our actions teach? What is this "new reality" that the Bush mechanism forges, so self-consciously? To what do I lend my hand merely by not rebutting, let alone in which I participate or encourage with my words or money or deeds?
In EL Doctorow's The Unfeeling President, he writes that the President's "face is our sky," and so it is that our leaders are our moral compass, and our parents our first and most firmly-fitted lens upon the world. (Especially if we admire them).
I cannot teach my children to be evil. That is wrong. I must teach them to see Good, as best I know how. That is my charge as a parent. If we lie to our children about these things, then we strip them of good preparation that they will need to engage that world. And as cliché as it may be, they really are our only hope for a better way. Like my parents generation, we have not done very well. A way in which we can do well is to tell the children the truth. Not bend their minds to mirror the warp we accept, and yet do not truly believe in our bones. There is a lifetime of society and media ahead of them that will attempt to do that.
I cannot teach my children that premptive war is Good. I must teach them that this is a great crime. Else there is nothing separating the Iraq Invasion from my paranoid delusion that my neighbor is plotting against me which eventually "causes" me to buy a gun and shoot them. And their entire family. That is, if the Iraq "War" is to be justified, then so must another body of actions that exist on a smaller scale. They are connected by philosophy; their shapes are the same and only the scale different. Truth is a fractal entity.
And beyond lessons to children, there are the unstated (and stated) lessons upon which the world uses to further build or unbuild itself. Were a preemptive war to succeed, this would inarguably justify such actions. Especially with the commonly held philosophy that the Ends Justifies the Means. And a land like America—that was built on blood and genocidal, or greed-driven agendas—must, by definition, inherent the philosophy that The Ends Justifies the Means. Conversely, if the Ends do not bear fruit, the Means are cast into disfavor.
Were the Iraq Invasion to bear fruit (again, beyond what Nature does with a lemon, and not in accordance with our plans), a precedent would be set that would surely inform the rest of the world. Were Iraq to suddenly settle and flowers bloom from every corner and money flow and electricity flow and Iraqis smile in wild abandon, what do you think our media would look and sound like today? What do you think the social discourse would be? If the show 24 already glorifies torture, you see what I am getting at, in that as well. His face is our sky. The world certainly would have a New Reality. And that would be: A leader who never even declares war may decide to destroy a part of any other country at a time and pace of his choosing; can initiate the death of almost a million human beings (and counting) for his own reasons (about which he isn't even forthright) while deceiving the population, and the world will stand by and watch.
That would be a new lesson. Premptive war can do good. Even when the war was planned for years ahead of time and sold as something else to people. And if you think of it that way, were that a true lesson, we would be living in very dark age indeed. But I say we do not live in a world where that is true. I say that this Universe, on her own, will not allow this Man's Lesson Plan to stand.
No, this deed needs to show itself for what it is: a horrible, horrible, Wrong. A wrong of incontestable enormity. This crime will not be justified by success. Certain truths are not to be rearranged by will. There is a spiritual homeostasis, as well, I say.
The fire will rage as it must, and when the ground is fallow, it will rest. And then, life will again, spring forth. Nature bending as she will, a grain we cannot foretell. The shoots will not be angled by our hand, but will grow despite it.
George W. Bush will go down in infamy as yet one more man who thought he could play GODdevil in this world, shaping the largest of perversions from sheer will, demonstrating the ultimate power: mass murder springing from a personal fiction and one's own glory celebrated for doing so. He will not have to wait for History to judge him, as he often chides us. He will live to see this day. And so will we.
Many Iraqis will not. But they will be vindicated by truth asserting itself once more.
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Comentarios (14)
Scott from Baltimore dijo:
I hope that something will be learned.
I wish we didn't have all this stuff destroyed and all these people hurt and killed. If God is laughing about this, then God's sense of humor is very strange to me.
George W Bush won't learn from this because he's a little slow in the head, and those who profited from this war will be vindicated by their money.
Palabras por Scott from Baltimore spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 09:49 AM
Rafael dijo:
Imagine if the war in Iraq had "succeeded"?
While many believe (naively that it would have stopped there, the reality would have been different, the U.S. would have tried to expand on that "success" and gone after Syria and Iran, creating and Empire from the Med to the Indian Ocean, an unsustainable Empire if the people of the region had their say. History has taught us that even preliminary Imperial victories are preludes to future Imperial disasters. How would the U.S rule such a vast area if not with hundreds of thousands of mercenaries troops (perhaps millions), roving bands of "elite expeditionary forces" stamping down "flash points" (rebellions) and the expenditure of billions of dollars and thousands of lives at the hands of corrupt proxy rulers?
Better it fail now, as painful as it may be for all involved (especially for the Iraqis who are suffering the worst, bearing the brunt of this last gasp of empire) than it be stretched out over the decades and miles from sea to shinning sea.
Palabras por Rafael spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 09:56 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
yes...Scott, i might have explained my use of "god" in that instance. i do not buy into any patriarchal, thinking, paternal, entity. that is my way of saying "stay humble," and i guess i assume as much of my nana's use of the phrase. humility has always been a theme of hers.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Ben dijo:
Nezua,
What do you realistically think will happen to the civilians in Iraq if we pull out? I can understand being against the war, disagreeing with American foreign policy, hoping that a certain set of dangerous ideas die out. The thing is, I see the following results if we abandon Iraq: where we now have hills of dead civiians I see mountain ranges of them, I see a bloody, burning, and long running civil war, I see ethnic cleansing, I see genocide. It's not fair to use other people's blood to pay for ideological disagreements be they of the right (starting a war injurious to civilians) or the left (pulling out and leaving millions of civilians to die before an autochthonous government can be set up that's capable of securing the peace).
I disagree that the goal here should be making this fail to humble or discredit the US. The goal should be to get out with as few dead Iraqis as possible after the troops go home, regardless of whether the US looks good or bad here. There are plenty of other ways to fight the power that will result in less dead Iraqis.
Palabras por Ben spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 10:48 AM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
I said nothing about a "goal." That's a huge redaction.
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 10:52 AM
Deoridhe dijo:
I hope both the pre-emptive war and the detainment of people without adequate representation and a trial both implode in such teaming seas of badness and wrongness that what remains of the US never even considers doing that again. I just grieve for all the people who have and will suffer due to said implosion, and who are suffering now.
I don't understand why people can claim to support the Constitution and still think those things are ok. I just... the cognitive dissonance required - I don't get it. I wish I did; maybe then I could think of a cure.
Palabras por Deoridhe spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 11:27 AM
RickB dijo:
The conflict in Iraq is mainly a resistance, it is painted as otherwise to suit imperial needs. Death squad activity exploded after Negroponte went there, however well meaning an individual soldier may be they are perceived as an occupier who kills and tortures they are not a credible peace keeping or nation building force. The sell off of Iraqi assets by Paul Bremer showed to them the US interest was greed not humanism, the concern for the Iraqis welfare is not credible.
The US (as detailed by Sy Hersh) tactic of inciting an Islamic civil war is clearly not about keeping Iraqis alive. It's old school divide and conquer. To support it is either ignorant, mental illness or evil, take your pick.
Now I looked at Ben's websites and he has post with a pic with graffiti saying "Bring David Hicks Home- and hang him", wingnuts are so funneeeee.
Lord Snooty clearly has a new friend.
Palabras por RickB spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 11:43 AM
Ben dijo:
Nezua,
You're right. It's not explicitly stated as a goal. I just read it that way. My bad. Just because you predict or hope for a certain outcome doesn't mean you're actively working towards it.
Rick, I'm glad I amuse you. My concerns about the effect a pullout will have on Iraqis, especially concerns about ethnic cleansing, are valid regardless of what other views I hold, what labels you put on me, or who you try to associate me with.
Palabras por Ben spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 12:49 PM
RickB dijo:
Ben, do you accept the 655,000 excess mortalities in Iraq due to the invasion? Given that 200,000 dead in Darfur were described as a genocide by the US (figures arrived at using the same methodolgy as the Iraqi figures) hasn't the cleansing already begun, and it was western forces who did it?
Palabras por RickB spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 01:26 PM
Cero dijo:
Ben, there are piles of dead already, with us there.
Palabras por Cero spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 04:11 PM
nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez dijo:
what i "hope," my friend, is that we learn to hope larger. well-entrenched puppet governments and oil laws that benefit us and give a bloody and cynical tinge to any words we might utter about iraq in the future are tiny, sleazy dreams to me. and if we can do no better, this world is in serious trouble. or at least our presence upon it. i'm sure mother Earth will be fine without us, either way....
Palabras por nezua limón xolagrafik-jonez spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 04:18 PM
Ben dijo:
Rick,
No I don't accept those numbers but that's besides the point. Not being there and relying on someone else's methodology, I can't know how many people are actually dead. I'm not in a position to accept anything. It's not a question of what I know, it's a question of what I believe. Rather than arguing over numbers, I'll go directly to where we agree: Thousands of people who presented no danger to the US are dead as a result of it's presence there.
I personally do not believe we are trying to eliminate or ethnically cleanse particular population of people. Please don't bother to argue this point because I'm stating what I believe, not making a claim to have the definitive truth. What I do believe is that if we leave abruptly more civilians than 655,000 will die, many many more.
In getting out of Iraq (and every sane person wants us out of Iraq) America's primary responsibility should be ensuring as much safety as possible for civilians after we leave. I would not view that as a US failure.
I imagine that you, Nezua, and pretty much everyone here who isn't me, expect the death rate to plummet after we leave. For those who hold that view point the urgency in ending the US presence there makes perfect sense. For people like me who don't, it doesn't.
Finally I agree with Nezua that what we say here doesn't count for much compared to the situation there, and that if things are to improve we need to do better.
Palabras por Ben spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 07:35 PM
Zaecus dijo:
Ben,
Look into the history of Vietnam. The exact same arguments against a pullout from Iraq were used then as well, genocide, bloodbath, massacre.
They were right, but that horror was short-lived, internal, self-controlling, and ultimately resulted in a unified country (regardless of what internal problems they may have). To the US government, however, that was a tragedy because it resulted in a country that was not groveling and controlled.
Though your stance is just as overstated as the stance taken by those opposing the end of US involvement in Vietnam, and for exactly the same reasons, you're right.
What you're wrong about is that our presence will lessen the bloodshed and death. If we leave, it will end, one way or another. If we stay, we will continue to be a never-ending source of bullets, anger, and reasons to kill and die.
Palabras por Zaecus spat forth on el 2 de Mayo, 2007 at 09:57 PM
RickB dijo:
Ben, I suggest you read this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6495753.stm
Publicly the numbers were denied, --But the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust".--
I don't think the Iraqis trust their lives will be protected by the force that did that and calls them 'hajis'.
Most of them want the occupation out immediately--
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601721.html
I trust them to know the truth of the occupation and who's really killing who and why more than any of us.
Palabras por RickB spat forth on el 3 de Mayo, 2007 at 09:02 AM